Cherelle Parker

Cherelle Lesley Parker (born September 10, 1972) is an American politician. She is currently the Democratic nominee in the 2023 Philadelphia mayoral election. If elected, she will be the first woman to hold the position. Parker served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 2005 to 2015, representing the 200th district in Northwest Philadelphia. She was elected to represent the ninth district on the Philadelphia City Council in 2015 and re-elected in 2019, serving as majority leader from 2020 to 2022. In September 2022, Parker resigned from City Council and announced her candidacy for Mayor of Philadelphia. She won the Democratic primary on May 16, 2023. Early life and education Parker was born in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Northwest Philadelphia to an unmarried teenage mother. Her mother died when Parker was 11, and she was raised by her grandparents, a disabled Navy veteran and a domestic worker who both grew up in the South. In 1990, as a senior at Parkway High School, Parker won a citywide oratorical contest; in addition to receiving a cash prize and a trip to Senegal and Morocco, she was introduced to then-City Councilmember Marian B. Tasco, who hired Parker as an intern.